The Arrival
by Alfur
Summary: Elrond and his sons, Legolas, Gandalf and Gimli were the only ones who survived the trip to the Grey Heavens.


Disclaimer: I don't own any of those characters  
  
The Arrival  
  
Death. All was Elrond thought was death and despair. His life must be over. He still clutched Legolas tightly from behind and his eyes were shut firmly. His heartbeat loud and raged, his ears slowly took in the soft noises and sounds that surrounded him, there was distant laughter assumedly coming from children. Then Gandalf's exclamation: "By Elbereth's graze..." the old wizard gasped and Elrond dared to open his eyes. They stood here amidst a wonderful garden, next to a huge oak and a lake, and in front of them stood a ancient castle, seeming totally magical, and Elrond's common sense told him that only magic could hold the building together.  
  
Legolas was still much paralysed, and everything went past him without any deeper interest. Even Elladan and Elrohir looked dazed and sad, blaming on the fact that their mother died. However, Gandalf's eyes widened, and with a bright smile, his gaze fell onto some giggling girls with funny robes. Sheepishly he greeted them with a waving hand, and Gimli, who held a huge leather bag with weapons, blushed to the roots of his red hair.  
  
"Gods...we are in heaven." Gandalf announced brightly and turned around to gaze at his fellows. The twins looked sickly green, Legolas was just a shadow of his self, and Elrond was bewildered beyond sense.  
  
"Anything wrong?" The wizard queried, "I mean, the spell worked at least. We are alive." He ignored Elrond's scowl and turned towards the castle. "Looks nice. We shall ask for refugee." Gandalf the White strode off, occasionally smiling at the lovely girls who sat in the sun, leaving his companions merely behind. As He reached the great oak door, he turned around and watched them approach. Elrond held his books and so did Legolas. The twins carried several belongings of all of them, and Gimli, as mentioned, the weapons.  
  
"Hurry up guys..." Mithrandir urged softly and opened the heavy door, his fellows following without a complaint inside the chilly hall of Hogwarts. A group of students happened to pass them in this very moment, and brushed past them, in a rough way. Legolas sighed in utter annoyance as he was pushed at the oaken door, and his books threatened to fall on the ground.  
  
"Excuse me!" Gandalf asked one of the students, who gazed at the old wizard with big eyes. Gandalf smiled sympathetically at the boy "Do you know where I can find the master of this castle?" bright blue eyes looked down at the boy reassuringly and the boy shifted a smile in return. "You.you mean Headmaster Dumbledore?"  
  
With a raised hand, Gandalf silenced Elrond's not outspoken question. "Yes, the very same. May you show me the way, dear boy?"  
  
The boy nodded and led the way up the staircase, on, and on a long floor, until they came to a gargoyle.  
  
"Strawberry drops" the boy said loudly, and before Elrond could scowl even deeper, a secret door opened and revealed a huge griffin statue. The staircase started to move upwards, and with big eyes, the ancient wizard dragged one after the other onto the moving stairs, not caring how much Gimli whimpered and how deeply Elrond growled in displeasure. Gandalf bid the boy goodbye, and vanished behind the secret door as well.  
  
Albus Dumbledore felt utterly content these days. He was now headmaster for two years, and everything ran smoothly. Mugglewar was over, and Grindelwald was defeated and the strawberry drops were as good as never before. The day was sunny and bright, and around five o'clock he would go down to have a little walk with his wife. Nothing could disturb his afternoon's bliss, nothing, not even Peeves.  
  
Then, there was a firm knock on the door to his office, and with a sigh, the old wizard rose from his chair.  
  
"Yes." He asked impatiently, with the slightest gaze of displeasure. The door opened and a shiny white wizard entered his office and bowed deeply, on his heels were three fair dark-haired tall men, one golden haired, of the same kin as the other three, and one little man with a long red beard and an axe.  
  
"Master Dumbledore, I am Gandalf the White." The stranger introduced himself and turned toward the tall blonde man and said "This is Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood" then his hand pointed to the older and rather sulky looking dark-haired man "Elrond, Lord of Imladris and his sons Elladan and Elrohir" and with a smile the old stranger added "And last but not least, Gimli Gloinson." Gandalf the White stepped closer toward the master of this castle and smiled "We come from afar, and we seek refuge."  
  
With wide interesting eyes Albus Dumbledore mustered the strangers, some looked so very sad and distressed, and then with a big smile of friendliness he conjured up six chairs with a wave of his hand.  
  
As the chairs appeared in front of them, they flinched, and the blonde man even jumped backwards.  
  
"Don't worry gentlemen, it's just magic. Please, do sit down." The master said politely and pointed to the chairs. Hesitatingly the tall men sat down, seeming much more frightened as the polite white man, and the little red-haired fighter. "Wanna have some tea?" Dumbledore asked his visitors, and they nodded silently.  
  
After about an hour and several pots of tea, Gandalf the White has told the Master of the castle their story about how they landed in these realms. With curious interest, Dumbledore even found out that the fair tall men were Elves, and on a closer look, he recognized their pointed ears. The little red-haired axe man was a dwarf, and very fond of the chocolate cookies. The twins enjoyed all kinds of multicoloured sweets, no matter that it glued their teeth together, or send shivering waves through their bodies. Elrond, the Lord of Imladris, a very decent and grudge person shrieked loudly as he opened a chocolate frog and it accidentally jumped right into his face. His sons smirked despite their sadness, and the blonde Elf Legolas reassuringly grasped Elrond's hand and cast him an amicable smile.  
  
Nice people, honestly.  
  
"Of course you can stay here." Dumbledore said merrily and took another sip of tea. I will prepare you some chambers. My daughter isn't here in England right now, so you can use her quarters."  
  
"Oh thank you, Master Dumbledore, I don't know how to ever return your favour." Gandalf retorted earnestly and stood up.  
  
"Oh, never mind. And call me Albus by the way, for we are colleagues, aren't we?" The wizards shook hands, and bright blue eyes met those sapphire blue eyes, which gazed merrily over half-moon spectacles.  
  
"Of course we are" Gandalf smiled. "And please call me Gandalf."  
  
~*~  
  
"What does that mean the world is round?" Elrond exclaimed furiously and glared down on the old wooden sphere with a map on it. Albus eyes widened in utmost curiosity as he pointed onto the globe.  
  
"Ha!" Gandalf stated victoriously "I always told you that it is round! And now, here's the proof!"  
  
Dawn grey eyes met bright blue eyes in a swift second. "Watch your tongue, dear friend!" the Lord of Imladris warned and looked back at Albus Dumbledore.  
  
"I can't believe that the world is indeed a sphere. We cannot be sure that we're really here in the realms of the grey heavens, only thousands of years later. That's impossible."  
  
"But the stars are the same!" Legolas stated, believing Gandalf's theory.  
  
Elrond sighed annoyed and buried his face in his palms. "By Elbereth...that's just a bad dream..."  
  
"The Middle Earth you once knew is known to us as Europe. However, it is only a little part of the world. There are other continents like North and South America, Asia, Australia, Africa...." Dumbledore pointed on each continent, but only Legolas and Elrohir seemed to be interested.  
  
Gandalf sat smugly on the couch and skipped through a heavy volume. "Amazing..." he muttered and sunk into the lecture, while Gimli snorted and played with the end of his beard.  
  
"I want home..." Elladan murmured and slumped ungracefully on the couch next to Gimli.  
  
"Don't behave like a maiden!" Elrond scolded at his sons. "Don't forget you're a Peredhil after all!"  
  
"Oh Elrond, please, the boy is in a bad situation, don't make him feel worse..." Gandalf interjected angrily.  
  
Elrond shot up his features stern with rage "All because of you! You and your mad Idea of a time travel! Or what ever that was! I should have never listened to you, I would have been more honourable to die, than to live now a half-life in a maddened world full of wizards who are telling me the world is a sphere!" his breath was uneven and loud, and Elrond tried to glare holes into the shiny white garment of Gandalf.  
  
"Have you finished your little outburst of disgust?" Gandalf pushed further. "You should be most thankful that I somehow saved our hides. We have the wonderful chance to live here, on a ball. We got a second chance, Elrond! We can fly with a plane just imagine that! A bird made of steel! And all you can do is to complain around like an old and unsatisfied dwarf woman!"  
  
Gimli shot up with a deadly growl in his throat "How dare you compare my kin with that filthy Glenn Elf!"  
  
"How dare you paying me no respect, you little worm!" Elrond scolded with utmost venom he can manage.  
  
"Watch out, or your Elvin neck will kiss my axe!" Gimli hissed darkly.  
  
"I shall remove your pointed tongue with my Elvin blade, to teach you some respect, dwarfling..." Elrond spat, almost loosing his temper.  
  
Legolas strode toward them with an angry expression "Gimli, my friend. Please, leave Elrond in peace. His wife died."  
  
"He never loved his wife!" Gimli spat with a snort.  
  
"How dare you bloody dwarf..." Elrond began and as he nearly jumped on the dwarf, Legolas held his former lover effortlessly back.  
  
"Melethnin..." Legolas sighed and tried to catch Elrond's gaze. However, the Lord of Imladris was deaf to Legolas' words.  
  
"I loved my wife!" Elrond hissed and caught the dwarf's eye. Nevertheless, Gimli only snorted  
  
"Rubbish! You always loved yourself most of anything else."  
  
"Gimli!" Gandalf warned and stood up. "It's enough, Gimli. Let's have a walk on the grounds" The dwarf was shoved out of Elrond's reach by Gandalf's strong arms. In addition, without any further comment they left the room.  
  
Albus sighed and sat down next to the globe, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "You have to stop those quarrels. Honestly, there is much new out there, and it will hit you like a hippogriff, I tell you. So please, don't be stupid, and show some respect to each other."  
  
Elrond growled deeply, and Legolas nodded sympathetically in understanding, catching Albus' eye.  
  
"You must know, Master Dumbledore, there was so much evil around us, consuming our very heart and soul. Our beloveds died away, the disappointment and grief is so immense...all we have is us...and we will do best to survive in this foreign world..." Legolas said silently, but loud enough for all to hear it.  
  
Albus with an assuring nod stepped towards the prince "You will, my dear boy, you will." The headmaster squeezed his shoulder briefly, and then left the room.  
  
~*~  
  
Authors Note: This is one tiny part of a very large story. It contains so much more and reaches over several decades. Maybe I will post more of it when I found a way how to split it up a bit. It's also the first story I wrote, so please be kind with me. Yours, Alfur. 


End file.
